Awesome Song of the Week! "Sleep on the Left Side" by Cornershop

Funky days are back again.

Awesome Song of the Week! "The Bulblight" by Joe Meek

For this week's awesome song, we have one of the strangest pieces of music to emerge from the depths of the 1950s:

http://alextyson.tumblr.com/post/369466802/bulblight-by-joe-meek-via-songz-this-is-one-of

This song is pretty weird. But it's nothing compared to the rest of what's on the same album. This song is from a concept album (in the 1950s, way before stuff like Tommy or Sgt. Pepper) by producer Joe Meek called "I Hear A New World" where the entire sound of the album is basically what Joe Meek imagined outer space sounded like. Joe Meek was a pretty crazy dude, and he actually believed that there was intelligent life on the moon and Mars (which, if you think about it, wasn't that strange of a belief in the 1950s). Joe Meek actually was kind of crazy though. He had a really tragic personal life that I won't go into here, but if you want to hear about it just google his name.

I guess the bottom line is that this is what Joe Meek thought outer space sounded like, and I believe him. I kind of imagine outer space sounding something like this. Along with George Clinton, Sun Ra, and the Roots Radics, Joe Meek is one of the only people who has created music that actually sounds like it's from outer space.

Awesome Songs of the Week!

Since I didn't do an awesome song last week, here's two for this week!

 Candylion by Gruff Rhys

And:

"Mr. President" by Janelle Monae

For all you fans of psychedelic Britpop/Afrofuturist R&B.

Also thank you Andrew for getting me into Gruff Rhys.

Awesome Song of the Week! "Express Yourself" by NWA

Ready for the awesome song? Well here it is.




Really not a whole lot I can say about this one, other than that it's awesome. A classic. I know I'm being kinda lazy with my description, but, I mean, it's NWA. One of the most influential hip hop groups of the 90s. They even have their own airline. I think.

Awesome Song of the Week! "Moon is Mine" by The Pillows

You know what it's time for.



If any of you are at all familiar with Japanese rock, you probably know The Pillows. They're probably the most influential J-Rock band of all time. (Must resist temptation to make a Kanye joke.) It's easy to listen to The Pillows and think that their music is really straightforward, so it's sometimes hard to really understand what a profound influence the Pillows have had on the Japanese music scene, but if you listen to nearly any J-Rock band from the 90s onward, you can hear traces of the Pillows' music.

This particular song is one of my favorites by them. The melody is epic, soaring, and really energetic, but at the same time just a little melancholy. And then there's the obligatory one English lyric about outer space. Seriously, just about every Pillows song has one bizarre English lyric in it (such as "I wanna be a gentleman" or "I won't call you scarecrow"), and a lot of the time that one lyric is about outer space (such as in "Ride on Shooting Star"). This also leads me to one of my favorite things about the Pillows: a lot of their lyrics make absolutely no sense. Some bands are known for writing lyrics strictly for their sound, rather than their meaning, and the Pillows are one of those bands. Which means that their lyrics always sound awesome.

Anyway, yeah, that's pretty much it.

Awesome Song of the Week! "Garden Botanum" by These Trails

Hey! I'm back, and for my first awesome song of the year I have a song so obscure that not even Yogurt-Pooh can hold a candle to it.

http://ponytone.com/streams/Garden%20Botanum.mp3

This song comes from the awkwardly-titled Hawaiian psych-folk band These Trails. Like many awesome psych bands of the 60s, These Trails only made one album, and it went absolutely nowhere. But recently some music nerd discovered it and it's been making its way around the internet. I haven't heard any word of a CD re-issue or anything, so These Trails haven't experienced the same kind of revival that some of their contemporaries have (such as The Zombies). But that just makes you cooler for knowing about them.

Now, admittedly, These Trails is not a band for everyone (see how awkward that sentence was? What an awkward band name). The very quivery vocals might be a little difficult to get used to, along with the very all-over-the-place song structures. And if you're not down with just synths and acoustic guitars, you won't like anything they've ever recorded. But if you're willing to give it a chance, I promise it will grow on you, and soon you'll realize that These Trails are (is?) without a doubt the most awesome overlooked Hawaiian acoustic psych folk band of all time. Of all time!

Anyway, enjoy this song. I think I picked the most accessible song from the album, so if you're into it, listen to the whole thing and expect lots of spaced-out psychedelic goodness.

Awesome Song of The Week! "Criminals" by Atlas Sound

Happy New Year everybody! Here's an awesome song to end 2009 and start 2010 with.

http://www.lala.com/#song/720857436866821606

"Criminals" is probably my favorite song from this album, but you can listen to the entire thing here, and it's all good. There's even a guest appearance from the lead singer of Stereolab.

Over the past couple weeks I've found that this song, and this whole album, makes incredible late night driving music. It's atmospheric enough to make the nighttime world interesting, but it's still got enough of a beat to be good for driving and to prevent any of the ambiance from being drowned out by road noise. It's slightly creepy, but in a cool way, similar to how empty streets at night are slightly creepy when they're illuminated by streetlights. But don't worry, Atlas Sound doesn't reach John Lithgow levels of creepiness.

So creepy...

Atlas Sound is the alias of Bradford Cox, a musician and producer who is associated with psychedelic indie band Deerhunter. His new album, Logos, came out pretty recently and it's pretty awesome.

On an unrelated note, there will be no awesome songs for the next couple weeks, as I'll be adventuring in the bogs of Ireland. If you want to hear about my adventures, check out Gaikokujin Blog.

Awesome Song of The Week! "The Alien Aborts" by The Roots Radics

Hey! I'm feeling pretty dubby today, so... here you go.



 WARNING: DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THE VIDEO

Awesome Song of The Week! "Fuzz Pop" by Yogurt-Pooh

Hey! It's time to be thankful for the

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS5u4k0Anxw

Sorry, I couldn't embed it. And yes, the name of this band is Yogurt-Pooh. Don't laugh. And yes, the song you're listening to has a different title than the one I wrote above. That's because it's not the song I wanted you to hear.

I just found out the hard way that Yogurt-Pooh songs are really, really difficult to track down. The song "Fuzz Pop," which I originally wanted to be the Awesome Song of the Week, is nowhere to be found on the entire internet. So as a substitute, I'm posting a different Yogurt-Pooh song that is nowhere close to being their best song. My second choice Yogurt-Pooh song for this week was also impossible to find, and ususally I have very good googling skills.

So give "TV Movies Make Me Happy" a listen, but just know that the actual awesome song of the week is "Fuzz Pop." Now you can just sit there and try to imagine how good "Fuzz Pop" is. I hope that when you actually hear it you won't have overhyped it for yourself.

Just for some background information, Yogurt-Pooh is a J-Rock band, as you've probably already figured out. They write really good songs that are impossible to find.

Awesome Song of The Week! Metal by Afrika Bambaataa ft. Gary Numan & MC Chatterbox

This week we have another awesome song selected for you by Andrei Kopelevich.

When it comes to ridiculous forced nostalgia, the eighties seem to be the decade du jour.   From the inexplicable return of ugly, ugly clothing (http://store.americanapparel.net/accessories-socks.html), to seemingly endless (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysJyFAHwVP8) musical (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoXRlxKZkr4) homages (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ1Mi77nogQ), to Kanye West's characteristically self-aggrandizing use of imagery from the film version of American Psycho (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2M9YHATH2Q), it seems that anything harking back to the excesses of the Me Generation deserves a moment in the pop culture spotlight.

Nobody, however, does it with more flash, more excess, and more outright quirkiness than the people who were actually there.



Two of the biggest, most ridiculous names of the Reagan Era (accompanied by some other guy) joined forces in the decidedly non-eighties year of 2004, to produce what would certainly be called a monstrosity at any other point in history.  It' all here!  Gary "in cars" Numan's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldyx3KHOFXw) eerie synth-pop whine, Afrika "party peeeeople" Bambaataa's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_vLzsG2TCU) distorted, jam-starting invocations, an inexplicably dated rap by the aptly named MC Chatterbox, and, as a special surprise to those of you who endured the rapping, a verse from Blondie's Heart of Glass (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CmhqoB1lNE).  Oh yes.

I may have neglected to mention that there are also bitchin' analog synthesizer sounds and kinda ridiculous lyrics about alienation and a lower capital gains tax and television programs about oil millionaires and all that.

So put down that gram and put on your leg warmers and nonprescription frames!  Mr. Gorbachev: tear up this floor.

Awesome Song of The Week! "Sensoria" by Cabaret Voltaire

This week's awesome song was picked by Andrei Kopelevich, a member of the experimental music group Intense Whispers and a DJ for UC Berkeley's radio station.

For a band frequently described as "underrated" and "forgotten" (see
http://coilhouse.net/2009/03/better-than-coffee-cabaret-voltaire/, http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jifqxqw5ldfe~T1), Cabaret Voltaire do get a lot of press.  They’ve had a profile in trainspotter mag The Wire (http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/212/), their Wikipedia page is longer than all previous "Awesome Song of The Week" bands combined, and a Google search for their name turns up 695,000 hits (granted, that statistic may be confounded by some Zurich-related Dada noise (Wikipedia: Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich)).  Despite the fact that the precedent set by the usual Awesome Song correspondent encourages a greater sense of truly underappreciated obscurity and indie cred, I've decided to stick with a selection from the Sheffield electro-industrial pioneers, despite any short films they may have soundtracked (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mujfvvlBUmg), or books that may have been written about them (http://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Evolution-Eighties-Voltaire-Government/dp/0946719462/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254377868&sr=8-7). Why?  Because they're still not terribly popular (especially not in any kind of mainstream sense), they don't have an inexplicable hipster cult like fellow industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle do, and because they fucking rock. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-IixtxKETU)

But which song to pick?  Like many great musical acts, CV had a number of "eras", from goofy tape loop experiments (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0T1RFWA0g), through bracing, avant-garde yet danceable industrial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLDMGnmCCw8), to sexy, sexy electrofunk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2vnP-jA-Oc), and at last to fairly derivative early house music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSSZYBP9M1Y). While the reviewer consensus seems to favor their late seventies/early eighties experimental grooves, I've opted to choose a classic from their mid eighties attempts to infiltrate pop music a la New Order.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkfzXq0tA3c).

Sensoria closes their 1984 album "Micro-Phonies" and was probably the closest they ever came to a hit.  The single version marks a striking attempt at what would later be called a mash-up, consisting of bits from both "Sensoria" and their other song "Do Right" spliced together.  This single, and the attendant album, mark the closest the group came to commercial success, and it's not hard to see why.  It's got everything! Cheezeball handclaps, cryptic and memorable vocal samples, rubbery synth basses, trippy electric guitar bits for that crossover touch, and, yeah, kinda inane dance music lyrics.  The music video's opening crane shot would later be imitated by later Sheffield group Pulp in their video for "Do You Remember The First Time" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PeOlzEXsZA) (that is to say if the whole thing is not just a coincidence, but come on!).  The surprising longevity of an experimental group's self-conscious decision to sell out can be witnessed in the fact that the Bloody Beetroots, Italian electro-house darlings signed to the tres hip Dim Mak label, remixed Sensoria in 2008. (with help from something or someone called "the SirBilly Experience") And they even had the keen sense to throw in audio clips from my favorite Kurt Russell movie!  Enjoy. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlC1t6VtZIE).

Awesome Song of The Week! "Nature Anthem" by Grandaddy

It's time for

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!




My goal for this series is to introduce people to a lot of new bands, so I was hesitant about posting a Grandaddy song this week, since I've already featured them here. But this song is just too awesome to pass up. This was the song that got me through my all-nighter on Monday. Every time I felt too stressed, or like I wanted to go to sleep, I just listened to this silly song and watched a bunch of animals dancing, and then I was ready to work again.

It's very rare that something this simple is this amazing. The song only consists of three chords and one verse, and it's so repetitive, but that's just what makes it so catchy and infectious. And it's such a happy song. I know I've been posting some more depressing stuff, but I guess this shows you that I'm not a completely morbid guy. This song just makes me want to walk up the side of a mountain, and then probably walk down the other side of the mountain. Truly awesome.

Awesome Song of Last Week! "Just A Thought" by Gnarls Barkley

You know the drill. It's time for:

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

This week's awesome song is "Just A Thought" by Gnarls Barkley

 

(It was so hard for me to choose which image of Gnarls Barkley to post, since there are so many good ones.)

You're definitely familiar with Gnarls Barkley already. If you were alive during the summer of 2006, you constantly heard their hit single "Crazy." Now, that song is awesome. But you've heard it before. My goal is to show you stuff you might not have heard before.

As with previous songs I've done, this one is really depressing. But it still has a great melody and beat. There's not really a whole lot more for me to say.

In case you've never listened to the radio or watched TV, I'll just tell you that Gnarls Barkley is the collaboration of rapper Cee-Lo and producer Danger Mouse. They had that one hit "Crazy" and a few other popular songs, but my guess is that, while both of their albums are good, the colossal success of that one song will probably make them destined to be "1 hit wonders." Not that that's a bad thing. Gnarls Barkley is really just a side project for both artists, so having even just one hit is an accomplishment.

Awesome Song of The Week! "Reggae From The Ghetto" by John Holt

Alright, I'm finally back on schedule. So you know what that means: it's time for

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!! 

This week's awesome song is the wonderfully titled "Reggae From The Ghetto" by John Holt:



Now I know some of you out there might not like reggae because you think it all sounds the same (which it doesn't), but if you listen to this song and don't like it... I'll leave it up to you to fill in this part.

John Holt is without a doubt one of the most underrated reggae singers out there. His voice is superb, and he has some other incredible reggae songs ("Ali Baba" is another personal favorite of mine, and it really deserves its own week). Most of his songs are as hooky as this one, and he has experimented with a lot of different styles of reggae as well (because there are different styles of reggae), working with lots of different producers as well as collaborating with other artists, such as U-Roy. Basically, John Holt is awesome. You can find a lot of his stuff on Trojan Records box sets, and there are a few best-ofs as well, which would be good purchases, since a lot of his songs were released as singles.

Hope you enjoyed this week's awesome song. Stay alert for some more posts about music coming up.

Awesome Song of Last Week! "Alice"

Sup everyone! I was really busy last week, and then I was gone for the weekend, so here's a belated

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

For this week's awesome song, I have to link to the youtube video, since the visuals complement the song so well:




There's one word that really comes to mind when listening to this song: trippy. I love this song because it's fucking trippy.

The really cool thing about it though is that it was made entirely using sound clips from Alice in Wonderland. The main melody is especially cool, since it's made of Alice's speech, but there aren't any complete words in it. It's just melodic gibberish, which is actually a really cool use of the human voice.

I have to thank my friend Dan for showing me this song. The person who made it has a lot of similar videos on youtube of electronic music made of clips from children's movies. Listen to them all. My other favorite is the Harry Potter one.

Awesome Song of The Week! "Care of Cell 44" by The Zombies

Who can guess what it's time for?

No, not that. Or that. Fine, I'll just tell you.

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

For this week's awesome song I have prepared a wonderful psychedelic pop classic for you.




I absolutely love songs that sound really happy but actually have really depressing lyrics. This is one of them. While the bouncy pop melody will make anyone happy, once they listen to the lyrics they'll realize that this song is about someone who's lover is in jail. Sorry if I ruined your happiness.

But you should still be happy, because this song is still awesome. The melody is so catchy, the bassline is so mellow, the drums are so crisp, and the semi-chorus ("Feeeeeeels sooooooo goooooood you're coming hooooooooooome sooooooooooon") is about as epic as 5 seconds of music can possibly be.

You might be thinking it's a little hypocritical of me to be posting a 60s psychedelic song this week after shitting all over classic rock last week, but the Zombies were never part of the canon. They made a fucking great album called Odessey and Oracle (the misspelling isn't intentional, the album cover designer just spelled it wrong by accident and it stuck) which was ignored by pretty much everyone, but had one hit single called "Time of the Season" which you've heard in every movie about hippies. However, the band put so much effort into making this album and had so many disputes over it that when the album went nowhere, they called it quits. It's a shame that this album went nowhere and the band broke up, because Odessey and Oracle is even better than some Beatles albums. And come on, how fucking awesome is that album cover? Really fucking awesome.

So there's your awesome song of the week. Hope you're feeling awesome now.

Awesome Song Of The Week! "Walk The World Away" by Teddy Brown

It's Thursday afternoon. You're probably done with classes/work by now and ready to kick back with some awesome music. That's why it's time for

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

This week's awesome song is "Walk The World Away" by Teddy Brown. A terrific example of Jamaican R&B, this is a song that catches you by surprise, starting out with just some mellow acoustic guitar and eventually transforming into a spectacle of choral vocals, horns, and bombastic drums. This song is as epic as it is beautiful, and while the production is over-the-top to say the least, the melody is exquisitely simple. It's probably the only song out there that reminds me of both energetic Motown singles and chill campfire songs. The lyrics are also great; while a lot of them don't really make sense, they're beautiful in their ambiguity. I've never really been able to understand what exactly this song is about, but this is one song that I've truly been able to relate to more than any other.

Want some background information on Teddy Brown? Me too. I don't know much about Teddy Brown, since I discovered this song on a compilation that didn't give any background information about him. A google search turned up this myspace page for a Jamaican singer named Teddy Brown, who might be the same guy, since the vocal style is pretty similar. But I'm not positive, since "Walk The World Away" appears nowhere on the myspace page, the compilation I found it on didn't have a picture of Teddy Brown, the songs on the myspace page are a really different style then "Walk The World Away," and the biography says Teddy Brown got his start in 1980, even though I think "Walk The World Away" was released before then. Who knows. Just enjoy the song.

Awesome Song Of The Week! "Everything Beautiful is Far Away" by Grandaddy

Sup everyone! It's time for:

AWESOME SONG OF THE WEEK!!!

This week's awesome song is by California indie band Grandaddy and is entitled "Everything Beautiful is Far Away." Yes, the title is absolutely terrible. But give the song a second chance.

When you first start listening to this song, it seems rather unremarkable. The first seven seconds of random electronic noise are probably enough to make most people skip to the next track, and even people who make it a little farther in will probably be unimpressed by the generic indie guitar chords, nasal vocals, and angsty lyrics about an astronaut stranded on a distant planet (because there's never been a song about that before). If you haven't listened to the song yet, or if you only listened to the beginning of it, you may be asking "Jake, how could this possibly be the awesome song of the week?" Keep listening, readers. Keep listening.

Things start to pick up around the end of the second verse (around 0:30), where we have a really hooky melody with some really tight harmony. The second verse is very similar to the first, but with the addition of little electronic flourishes that, in my opinion, add so much to the song. At the end of this verse we have some tight harmonies again, and things are starting to look up.

Around 1:20 you'll realize why this is the awesome song of the week. This song lacks a chorus and instead features a beautiful instrumental part played on the synth that's incredibly layered and beautiful, blending wonderfully with the texture of the drums. Once you've made it to this point, just lay back and let the music wash over you. It's synthesized perfection.

Just for some background info, Grandaddy were an indie rock band from northern California that blended geek rock, synth pop, new wave, and electronic noise into really dense, textured, and incredibly catchy songs. If you've seen 28 Days Later or the TV show Screenwipe, you've heard their most famous song. Grandaddy broke up a few years ago, but released a few awesome albums (Under the Western Freeway and The Sophtware Slump are my favorites), and their lead singer and songwriter Jason Lytle is releasing some solo stuff (which isn't quite as good).

What will the next awesome song be? Check in next week to find out.

Awesome Song Of The Week! Peace by The Sparta Locals

So I'm back from Japan now and getting back into more of a regular schedule that doesn't involve failing to write a travel blog, so I'm incredibly happy to announce that I'll be starting a new series for The Tartar Sauce!

It's called Awesome Song of the Week! (The exclamation point is part of the title.) Every Thursday I'll be posting a link to a really really awesome song and giving a short writeup about it. Basically, this is a way for readers to hopefully get into some cool new music, and a way for me to flaunt my infinite knowledge of pop music. Wait, did I say "infinite knowledge of pop music"? Because I meant to say "ego." Anyway, these songs are obviously gonna reflect my personal taste, and if you consistently read this then you'll get some idea of what kinds of music I like, but hopefully you'll like some of it too. Also, I'm gonna try and keep the songs on the obscure side, not because I want to brag about how I listen to experimental Japanese new wave, but because I want people who've never heard experimental Japanese new wave to get into it. 

Anyway, here's the first installment! Let's see how it goes.

This week's song is "Peace" by the Sparta Locals. The reason I picked this song for the first installment is because it is, without question, my favorite song of all time. It is a perfect song. Just listen to it:

"Peace" contains everything that makes a good song good: it's upbeat; it's powerful; it's epic; it's got an outstanding melody and a driving rhythm; and it's insanely difficult to play. Seriously, listen to the guitar part after the first chanting part (around 1:30). You hear those really fast notes followed by those descending notes? Notice how there are two guitarists in the band? Well, both guitarists are playing those really fast notes. In fact, they ALTERNATE EACH FUCKING NOTE. The Sparta Locals are SUCH A TIGHT BAND. And the final section of the song that starts at 2:30... what more can I say than that it's absolutely brilliant. That section sounds like all hell is breaking loose and all the music is just exploding into an all consuming abyss. And yet it's still incredibly tight. That's just one thing that makes this song amazing. Also, I'm assuming the lyrics to "Peace" are really good too, because the singer is obviously really passionate about them.

Now just for some background info, the Sparta Locals are a recent Japanese indie/post-punk band who are hugely influenced by Gang of Four. Their overall sound is basically a faster, tighter version of Gang of Four that uses Asian pentatonic scales a lot of the time. They're from Fukuoka originally, but moved to Tokyo to become part of the music scene there. Sadly, the Sparta Locals recently announced that they will be breaking up. But at least they quit while they were ahead. Seriously, all their albums are good.

Now, I know what you may be thinking. "Oh, the pretentious music kid went for the obscure choice first." Yeah, it's true that the Sparta Locals are really fucking obscure. In fact, they're still basically underground in Japan. I only met one person there who had heard of them. But that's not why I picked this song first. As I said, this is my favorite song ever. It's my most played song in iTunes. Listen to it. Like, 500 times. 

On an unrelated note, I'm also planning on starting another series, but it won't be for at least a couple weeks. Until then, it's a secret. Also, I'll probably start doing web clippings too, whenever I have some good ones.